The male politician's wardrobe

Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Julia Gillard had a relatively subdued, and often strange, wardrobe that you could recognise on appearance.

There was of course the black and white chequered coat which Bronwyn Bishop mocked her in as "The Member for David Jones". There was the navy blue pinstriped pant-suit with that weird purple hem that looked like a zip and wrapped around her jacket. Then there was the boxy grey pantsuit with the white hem which The Australian's Georgina Safe has said "looks like a pair of pyjamas with its shiny striped fabric and piping". There was also the grey pantsuit with the Nehru collar, the brown wraparound shirt and the dark floral jacket. Not to mention a small army of black pantsuits, often combined with that flaring Shakespearean-esque collared white shirt.

In the last few months there has been a slow build-up in her collection, perhaps a sign of her rising ambition.

A lighter grey pantsuit was added along with the black and white polka dot skirt and matching jacket that is never worn together. The skirt will forever lay in history now as the outfit she wore when she told Kevin Rudd she had the numbers.

But with her ascension to the Prime Ministership came an explosion in her fashion wardrobe overnight.

Suddenly out came a plethora of white suit jackets, hypothesized by some, like the Humphrey Bear-with-elbow-patches fashion icon Piers Akerman, as designed to make her look "pure". There was also the multi-coloured trench-coat and the vertical striped white and black jacket.

While this sort of detail over the Prime Minister's attire each day is the focus of commentary for many - let alone her hair style - they are forgetting one thing: our male politicians are the worst dressed of all.

But there is a distinct sense of fashion ignorance when it comes to the commentary on male politicians' fashion, by those who purport to know the most about it.

For example in Georgina Safe's article mentioned earlier she brushes off the fashion of male politicians as "fairly clear (dark suit, shirt and a tie)". But thankfully the ever-beautiful Mia Freedman has pointed out it is much more complicated than this and unfortunately many only see accessorising as putting on "a hardhat when in 10km of a construction site or an Akubra when their shoes touch grass".

A group of students from La Trobe University have also taken up the cause, promoted by the ever-fashionable Latika Bourke of 2UE, by asking each of the male politicians over Twitter about their fashion choices.

Shadow Immigration Minister Scott Morrison quipped back that he didn't "think GQ will be calling". Others like Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham took it more seriously, pointing out he was wearing a "pure wool blue single breast 2 button pin stripe, white shirt, stripe tie". Birmingham later qualified this by saying he preferred issues over image. Before adding he was dressed by local Adelaide businessman Joseph Uzumcu.

But still, a quick glance across the floor of the parliament from the visitor's gallery is enough to make you want to call in The Fab Five.

One of the first things you will notice is that a disproportionate number are wearing the ugly, yet simple, elasticised RM Williams Boots. Tony Abbott has called them "quite the fashion item on the front bench". Perhaps they can't tie their shoelaces?

Peter Costello was one of the first to start the trend which he has told Fairfax apparently "illustrated Coalition unity to see Liberals and Nats decked out in the same attire". Many blamed Kevin Rudd for their proliferation through the Labor Party, even after a bemused President Obama gawked at them last year and the British press mocked them on a trip to London.

This is just the start of a long list of fashion faux-pas when it comes to male politicians.

Kevin Rudd's khaki pants were about two-inches too short for the first year he was Prime Minister, emphasising his school boy nerd appearance. His standard uniform when a suit was not required were these khakis with a light blue top that looked like it was on sale from Rivers. With performances like these many were left wondering what happened to Nadia Benussi, the Sydney stylist with Hollywood experience who was engaged to spruce up KEVIN07's image.

But according to The Australian Financial Review's Fiona Carruthers, staff of Tony Abbott have confirmed that "he does not plan to hire a personal stylist, has not had any dental or cosmetic work, does not use hair dye and has no favoured Australian designers". Carruthers points out that former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was named GQ's Worst Dressed Man of the Year and by May he had become toast.

Few will ever forget the many tracksuits of John Howard, just like Ali G except not cool. His eyebrows are forever etched in our national consciousness as the greatest fear of ageing men. And god-forbid a male politician will ever go drag again like Alexander Downer, giving cartoonists material for the rest of his life. Or for that matter wear 'budgie-smugglers'.

Luckily Philip Ruddock seems one of the last in the chamber to still wear double breasted suits. Many sport terrible hairstyles like Wayne Swan and his impersonation of a toupee or Stephen Smith who looks like he just got an electric shock. Liberal backbenchers Andrew Laming and Alex Hawke are probably the two best in this regard with their youthful but serious locks. Few seem to take much care with their selection of suits, and some like the Labor backbench rubble who weren't expected to win in 2007 look like they are wearing the same suit from their school formal, replete with black shirts and silver ties.

As Val Lorridge, a fashion lecturer at the University of Technology in Sydney has highlighted, we live in an age when it is hard for male politicians to distinguish themselves for their fashion "chic". The result is a reluctance for them to stray from "proverbial suits".

Ultimately one of the best ways to evaluate a male politician's appearance lays in their tie-knot.

In 1975 fashion guru John T. Molloy proclaimed "Show me a man's ties and I'll tell you who he is or who he is trying to be". While many focus on the tie itself, the knot provides an obvious, yet often overlooked, insight.

For example, Napoleon donned a large, loose knot at the ill-fated Battle of Waterloo in 1818, which his soldiers understood as a sign of strength and optimism.

During the 2008 United States Presidential campaign Newsweek ran a feature on politician's tie-knots. They hypothesized that John McCain's full-Windsor knot screamed "old-Guard Washington establishment" while Barack Obama's four-in-hand knot was "a less formal, more middle-class tack" countering charges of elitism.

But a year ahead of that Australians too had a choice between a full-Windsor man, John Howard, and a four-in-hander, Kevin Rudd.

Malcolm Turnbull even switched from his business-looking half-Windsor knots to the more regal full-Windsor during his leadership in a bid to look Prime Ministerial. Gone too were the cufflinks during the belt tightening financial crisis, at risk of looking wealthy and out of touch.

This year our sole choice when it comes to tie-knots is a man who ruins an otherwise okay look, replete with slim fitting shirts, with a messed up school-boy job of a knot.

But these days there are over 100 tie-knots to choose from, including the mathematician's knot which some joke takes an advanced geometry degree to master.

So as you can see male politicians have just as much choice when it comes to their wardrobe.

Thom Woodroofe, is the Young Victorian of the Year and only wears two-button, single-breasted, double-vented, slim-fitting, ticket-pocketed suits with cutaway Italian collared shirts and a half-Windsor knot for his tie. @thomwoodroofe

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